THE CLIMB TO THE PEAK

After a night's rest, most climbers leave at about 3.00am for the 3-hour trek to the summit and to catch a magnificent sunrise, weather permitting. In the dark, you can see the beams of torch lights as the procession of climbers trudge higher and higher. There are ladders, hand railings and ropes to help you over the steeper slopes.

An hour from Panar Laban, you'll see the Sayat-Sayat Hut, this is the highest shelter on the mountain for park use only. From here, you will walk across the bare granite slabs that stretch endlessly ahead, in an eerie moonscape of stone. The vegetation are stunted shrubs and tough grasses in the crevices. 

By about 6.00am, you reach your final destination; the highest point on Mount Kinabalu, the summit of Borneo at 4095.2m is Low's Peak! As you wait in the cold, dawn gradually creeps over the horizon, illuminating the darkness with the light of a new day. In clear weather, you can almost see all of Sabah spread out below... 

From this vantage point, you'll also see a dramatic drop more than 1000m down...this is the Low's Gully. In 1998, a joint Malaysian-British expedition successfully descended in to the Gully. Expedition members believe that it was not so much a 'conquering' of the Gully, as an acceptance by the mountain to let them through, perhaps due to the spiritual rituals before and after the expedition.

A chasm stretching 16Km in length, it separates the summit plateau into the Western and Eastern Plateaus. Other peaks on the mountain are Victoria's Peak (4090m),Donkey Ears Peak (4054m), South Peak (3921.5m) and St. John's Peak (4090.7m) on the Western Plateau. On the Eastern Plateau, stand King Edward Peak (4086m), Mesilau Peak (3801.3m) and king George Peak (4062.6m). These peaks are only for experience climbers as it is a challenging climb. Special permits from the Park authorities is required.

It can be very cold with strong wind at the summit. Hence, climbers are advised to descent as soon as possible. You may be lucky to have good mountain condition and able to stay longer . It is advisable to descent before the swirling clouds could obstruct visibility. It takes 2 hours to descent to Panar Laban / Laban Rata. Check out time is 10am. The descent to Timpohon Gate takes about 4 to 5 hours. The slowest descend Record from Panar Laban to Timpohon Gate is 12 Hours!